ALBERT

Description: The Selenga River Delta, Lake Baikal, Russia, is ~600 km 2 in size and contains multiple distributary channels that receive varying amounts of water and sediment discharge. The delta is positioned along the deep-water (~1600 m) margin of Lake Baikal, a half-graben–styled rift basin, qualifying it as a modern analogue of a shelf-edge delta system. This study provides a detailed field survey of channel bed sediment composition, channel geometry, and water discharge. The data and analyses presented here indicate that the Selenga Delta exhibits downstream sediment fining over tens of kilometers, ranging from predominantly gravel (coarse pebble) and sand near its apex to silt and sand at the delta-lake interface. We developed an analytical framework to evaluate the downstream elimination of gravel within the multiple distributary channels. The findings include the following. (1) The Selenga River Delta consists of at least eight orders of distributary channels. (2) With increasing channel order downstream, channel cross-sectional area, width-depth ratio, water discharge, boundary shear stress, and sediment flux systematically decrease. (3) The downstream elimination of gravel in distributary channels is caused by declining boundary shear stress as a result of water discharge partitioning among the bifurcating channels. (4) Over longer time scales, gravel is contained on the delta topset due to frequent and discrete seismic events that produce subsidence and accommodation, so that coarse sediment cannot be transported to the axis of the Baikal Rift basin. The distribution of sediment grain size in deltaic channels, as related to hydrodynamics and sediment transport, plays a critical role in influencing stratigraphy, because the sustained tectonism leads to high preservation potential of the delta topset sedimentary deposits. Therefore, the Selenga River Delta provides an opportunity to explore the interactions between modern deltaic sedimentation processes and tectonics that affect the production of basin stratigraphy.

Description: Protodunes emerge from a flat sand bed at the upwind margin of White Sands Dune Field, and, over several hundred meters, transition into fully developed dunes. Here, we investigate spatial and temporal changes in topography across this transition from 2007 to 2016 using lidar-derived topography, structure-from-motion-derived topography, and RTK GPS. We characterize the deposits present in 2015 using ground penetrating radar. Symmetric protodunes give way downwind to an asymmetric protodune at the transition to slipface development. Between 2007 and 2016, protodune amplitude increased from 0.2 m to 4.0 m, migration rate increased from 3.2 m/yr to 6.1 m/yr, and wavelength increased from 76 m to 122 m. Ground-penetrating radar surveys show strata between flat and 15° make up the stratigraphic architecture of the protodunes. Strata increase in steepness commensurate with an increase in amplitude. Decimeter accumulations of low-angle strata associated with initial protodune stages give way to 4 m of accumulation composed of sets up to 1 m thick prior to slipface development. Topsets present in the thickest sets indicate near critical angles of bedform climb. Growth and slipface development occur by aerodynamic sand trapping and protodune merging. Changes in asymmetry erase initial slipfaces prior to permanent slipface development, after which efficient sand trapping and scour promotes the transition to a dune across 20 m in 5 years. Protodune stratification has hallmarks of sandsheet stratification and can be appreciated within the greater suite of processes that create low-angle eolian stratification found in modern and ancient environments.